Wonderful Windows

Good Saturday morning my blogging friends!  Hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I'm feeling rather poorly myself, having come down with a cold/flu type of deal on Friday so I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in a bit of rest this weekend - amongst my crafting and ministry work at church.

Our challenge this week at Our Creative Corner was set by our hostess Holly and is called Wonderful Windows. Wooeee, this was a tough one for me!  I'm not too fond of window cards because they are so fussy and take so long to make, not to mention how tough they are to photograph! That said, I am very happy with the results of my labor.   As you can see, I wanted to work in some yellow crinkled seam binding, but there was no room for a large floppy bow so I ended up weaving it in and out of the filigree metal.  I like the way it looks!

Details for the front of the card - Chocolate Chip outer shell, then a layer of whisper white stamped in Ranger Archival Black with a Tim Holtz (Christmas) music stamp then sponged with Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo.  The checkered paper is from Raspberry Roads but I changed the color from light blue to the garden green shade I had in mind to go with the sunflowers.

The window was cut with a Spellbinders label die and I used the music stamp plus an Artistic Outpost postcard stamp on the inside.  My sunflower was cut from crinoline with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and dyed with Summer Sun reinker.  The leaves were cut from canvas with the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die and dyed with Garden Green reinker.  The ledger paper is also (digital) from Raspberry Road.  

I made up a little embellishment kit with the crinoline sunflowers and am offering it in my Etsy boutique.  I listed 5 but if they are sold out, come back later and I'll list more.  If you don't see them listed and are interested, email me at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com and I'll let you know the availability of additional kits.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you have a great weekend.

Challenges Entered:

Crafts and Me - Buttons and Bows

The Pixie Cottage - Mellow Yellow and/or Sketch

Truly Scrumptious - Decorate the Inside of Your Card

Second-Hand Rose

Arrggghh!!! Do you ever just want to scream or throw a card you are working on out the window or into the trash? This card had me so frustrated. It took about 4 hours longer to make than it should have because I kept making sections over and over to make it fit.

It is an aperature card that I made for the first weekly challenge of a new challenge ezine blog called The Next Level. It was a great challenge and I was itching to get started. I had a perfect layout in mind. The second half of the challenge was to make a faux Prima lollipop paper flower. The wonderful people at The Next Level even gave us a tutorial on how to make a lollipop flower.

I knew I wanted the handmade flower to be the main focal point of the card and because I decorate all the panels of my cards with several layers of cardstock, I had to cut holes in all of the panels and the hitch was, they had to line up perfectly (can you say do-over???). Then I struggled with the front. Okay, so I had an aperature, now what? So I played around with that for an extra hour. Then I wasn't happy because there was no where to write a special message, let alone include a sentiment. So I ended up making a pocket and a tag on the back panel for the sender to write a message.

Overall, I am happy with the card. I wanted it to be primo because the winner gets a one week guest designer spot on the challenge blog and I would love to win that!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Floral (background stamp)
Paper: K&Co., Old Olive, River Rock
Ink: Versamark, Creamy Caramel for distressing
Accessories: Gold brads, gold pearls, Boss Kutz floruish die, Nestabilities Circle Dies, Cuttlebug, Sewing Machine, Clear EP, lace from Lace Heaven, charm from Pick a Petal (Michael's), SU jumbo eyelet

Now on to Valentine's Day

The "holidays" are over and it's on to Valentine's Day, the next big greeting card day. Of course, we cardmakers can always find reasons to make and send cards. We don't need no stinkin' holiday, LOL! But I am rather fond of making Valentine's cards so I took the plunge and made my first one for this year.

I just love Stampin' Up's Riding Hood Red from this year's In Color Collection. I think it goes beautifully with Close to Cocoa and then decided to add Always Artichoke as a third color.

I saw this neat card layout on this blog and thought the heart from the Always set would work perfectly for it. The panel for the main image is actually layered on the inside panel and a square window is cut in the front panel. This took a lot of precise measuring and cutting. I stamped the heart first with Versamark and then immediately with Riding Hood Red classic ink. I stamped the image on Whisper White and clear embossed it. The filigree corners were cut with the CB Vintage Die and silver embossed. Then I pounded and knicked them up a bit and dabbed a bit of Basic Black ink on them to give them a vintage look to match the charm.

Card Recipe (Everything is by SU):

Stamps: Always, Together Forever

Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Close to Cocoa DSP (retired), Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Versamark, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Square Nestabilities, CB Vintage die, SU ribbon, Blue Moon heart charm, silver and clear EP and sewing machine.